A 16-year-old from Chalfont St Peter has earned the chance to make his dream of playing top professional football a reality by landing a contract with Scottish Premiership club Gretna.
Talented right back Jack Pattison has landed a mouth-watering contract that will give him a three-year scholarship followed by one year as a pro – and on the way he is likely to be groomed for the Scottish international youth side.
“I’m over the moon – it’s what I’ve been working for the whole of my footballing career,” said Jack, who has been thrown straight in at the deep end.
Having just left The Chalfonts Community College, he moved up to Scotland at the weekend and started training on Monday, July 2.
This Sunday he will travel to Corfu with the Scottish Premier League U19 youth side for a three-week training camp and tournament.
Jack said he started to play “a bit later than all my friends, at the age of six or seven”.
He was taken on at West Ham when he was nine, and moved to Watford when he was 13.
He originally played up front. “As a young player I was scoring goals, then I was put at right back for a game when I was at West Ham and I really enjoyed it.”
He hasn’t looked back since.
The Black and Whites were among five clubs to approach him after scouts watched him at Bisham Abbey. The others were Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Portsmouth and Cambridge United.
“We’re very proud of him” said his father, Stephen, who also played at right back and was an apprentice at Watford for two years in Luther Blissett’s era.
“I was younger but Luther was a lot faster and fitter than I ever was,” said Mr Pattison, who went on to play in the non-league game until he was 26.
The Pattison family dismissed Gretna at first and talked to the Bristol clubs who both offered two-year scholarships.
“Then the Watford youth team coach Chris Cummings – now Luton’s youth team manager – advised us to look at Gretna,” said Mr Pattison.
Jack stayed in Scotland for a week and they extended their offer from two years to four.
He said: “I was really surprised by Gretna – it’s a great place and the coaching staff were very nice.”
Born in January 1991, he is one of the youngest scholars. Based in college at Penrith, he will study sports science, although the va